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Sunday, January 2, 2011

Goodbye Itsy Bitsy Atlantis - 2

The Ecocosmology Blog had a post Goodbye Itsy Bitsy Atlantis, about an island that has already gone under, because the water level of the oceans is rising.

The Maldives, a low-lying country in the Indian Ocean, is facing rising sea levels which could literally wipe it off the map.

Here is a letter from the president of that country last October before the 10/10/10 world workday, modified slightly for a forward look and forward hope.Dear friends,

As President of one of the world's most climate vulnerable countries, I want to thank you for your tireless work and offer my wholehearted support for the Global Work Party on [11/11/11?].

I shall be working hard in support of [11/11/11?], up on my roof installing solar panels donated by Sungevity. But my event is just one of dozens of activities planed in the Maldives and thousands worldwide in support of this campaign.

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to continue working to ensure that the planet meets the sustainable goal of returning CO2 concentrations to 350ppm.

For the Maldives, 350 is more than just a number: it is a passport to survival for our entire nation.

With best wishes,

President Mohamed NasheedPresident of the MaldivesThe 350 movement has this to say:Dear friends,

2010 was a bittersweet year--truly the worst of times and the best.

It was a year when we suffered with our friends around the planet, as floods wracked one country after another, fires swept Russia, and 19 nations set new temperature records; 2010 was the warmest year the earth has yet recorded.

But it was also the year when we saw the forces of hope gathering momentum. Despite the debacle in Copenhagen, millions came together in 2010 to build a powerful movement.

8 comments:

Floods in Australia - Australia floods: Residents wake up surrounded by water - have a better chance at getting the first world's attention. I seriously doubt the loss of 50 Maldives would even make a dent in the consciousness of first world voters. Only when first world countries are impacted directly and undeniably will climate change get any traction whatsoever, and by then it's likely to be too late. Might be too late already in fact.

The single best thing that can happen for the supporters of climate change is in fact happening right now. Oil Surges to Highest Year-End Price Since 2007 on Dollar At over $91/bbl, oil prices are entering the recessionary price realm yet once again, and economic recessions do get the attention of policy makers, even if their prescriptions are almost always myopic and equate with merely doubling down on more of the same.

Forunately, that bag of tricks is nearly exhausted, and who knows, maybe once NoBama and the dems realize they've only got two years left of their political clocks, they'll realize they've got nothing to lose and actually propose some meaningful action. You know, show some LEADERSHIP for the first time ever! I know, I know, that's a pipe dream. NoBama's more concerned with "reaching out" to a bunch who've already made up their minds on him. GOP agenda: Major impact may be on 2012 election

And don't forget the "over-land hurricane" that set new historical low pressure records and which looked like an "over-ocean hurricane" in all aspects, even though it formed over land and stayed over land.

You hate to see people's lives and livelihoods threatened in order to affect meaningful change, but historically it has always been so. Even then, the global weirding events we've seen so far have remained fairly ineffective at focusing people's attention on the underlying cause(s). Denial is a powerful trait, and will likely grow much stronger still before acceptance sets in.

Prediction: Climate change will only be addressed in the US once the economy has gone into the tank again - this time for real - and one party - more than likely the GOP - has a substantial enough majority that they can enact legislation more or less unilaterally. Even then, it will still be piecemeal and focused on we of the "gen pop"; mostly in response to higher energy prices and/or shortages that will make the decision unavoidable anyway, and as a means to impose austerity on a population that will be getting pretty damn restless and threatening open revolt.

And the remaining fossil fuel stocks will be diverted, of course, to our favorite bitch - MOMCOM and her closely allied sycophants. This is all in line with Dredd's previous posts on government planned triage, which was probably being discussed at least as early as Cheney's secret oil industry meetings back in the spring of 2001.

Monbiot linked global warming denial to the fear of death, one of the amygdala's strongest fears.

I agree. Which is a key reason to predict that climate change will not be dealt with until it is too late. We in the west, in particular, have a keen aversion to death issues, and a supreme over confidence in our technological abilities. If ever there was a culture unprepared to deal with such a confounding global issue as climate change, it is most definitely us.

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